[Kars Trial Stage]
[Trial Difficulty: Extremely High]
[Trial Description: Go alone to St. Moritz, Switzerland, and fight the Pillar Man, Kars, until victory. Once you fail or die, the challenge is considered a failure, and the Ascension Star Core will disappear.]
[Note: During this trial mission, Stands cannot be used. After the trial begins, an area with Kars at the center and a radius of ten kilometers will become the arrival zone. The challenger will randomly descend into the body of any plot character.]
The Kars Trial not allowing the use of Stands, this point, Ryosuke could understand.
But the random descent part was pure scratch-card luck.
Before obtaining the Ascension Star Core and starting the challenge, Ryosuke had even been a bit pretentious, thinking, 'I hope I don't descend into Lisa Lisa. A female body would affect my strength output at critical moments.'
Now it seemed that being able to descend into Lisa Lisa would absolutely count as incredible luck.
If he descended into an ordinary person, with no Stand, and the opponent was Kars, who possessed super-speed regeneration, danger perception, and terrifying close-combat strength,
That would be ridiculously hard to fight.
Unlike the previous two trial missions.
Father Pucci and Yoshikage Kira were both ordinary humans with powerful Stands but weak bodies. With Ryosuke's methods, as long as they were within the steel ball's range, they were already in the execution zone.
'The key lies in the entry timing of the trial mission.'
Ryosuke pondered. 'If I can enter the plot early, with my mastery of Ripple, even with a blank body, I could raise Ripple to combat level within a week.'
For example, in the Killer Queen trial mission, Ryosuke relied on repeatedly triggering time reversal to gain enough time to think and experiment.
'If the entry time is relatively late, then I'll have to rely more on the Golden Spin.'
Spin techniques don't have much to do with physical strength. As long as Ryosuke could throw the steel ball, that would be enough.
'However, I have to be careful of Kars' learning ability.'
Ryosuke remembered that in the original story, Kars, who had never used Ripple before, learned how to use Ripple in an extremely short time after becoming the Ultimate Lifeform, and its power was hundreds of times greater than Joseph's.
The use of the Golden Spin had to be as cautious as possible. It was best to only use it at the most critical, decisive moment.
"If Kars learns the Golden Spin, turns his lower body into a horse, and fires a 'Cavalry Spin' at me…"
Ryosuke felt that even in death, he wouldn't rest in peace.
Lastly, there was the Projection of the Past.
This was Ryosuke's true trump card.
Thinking back to the Roran ruins, where Ryosuke triggered an earthquake spanning hundreds of kilometers.
If all the power stored in the Projection of the Past could be fully unleashed, not to mention one Kars, even the entire country of Sweden would be wiped off the world map.
It was true that Kars became the Ultimate Lifeform.
But his strength was more reflected in his ability to adapt to environments beyond limits, as well as his ageless, undying nature.
Even a volcanic eruption could drive Kars away, let alone a catastrophe on the level of a dragon vein eruption.
'The problem is, no one knows whether I'll still be able to use this world's Projection of the Past once I arrive in the JOJO world.'
Who he would descend into was uncertain.
The entry time was uncertain.
Which abilities he could use were uncertain.
With so many uncertainties, the preparations Ryosuke needed to make were more about intelligence and mindset.
And now, preparations in both aspects were already complete.
[Do you wish to start the Kars Trial?]
The system icon flickered before his eyes. Ryosuke did not click confirm.
'There's still one last bit of preparation.'
He exchanged greetings with Kakashi and the others, left the laboratory, and went to the rest area to make himself a cup of coffee.
While waiting for the coffee, Ryosuke picked up a chocolate wafer from the snack rack, took a big crunchy bite, and then lifted the coffee.
The bitterness of the coffee and the sweet, crispy richness of the chocolate wafer blended perfectly together, and Ryosuke let out a satisfied sigh.
'Sure enough, you still need to eat something before working.'
Ryosuke injected Ripple into the Ascension Star Core. 'System, start the Kars Trial mission.'
Buzz!
The Ascension Star Core burst forth with brilliant starlight, and the system's notification sounded in his ears, "Kars Trial mission starting… Difficulty extremely high. Please prepare…"
"Ryosuke, good luck."
That upside-down, weightless feeling of the world flipping returned once again.
Ringing ears, dizziness, weightlessness… the complex sensations surged up violently, then receded like a tide. Noisy sounds went from distant to near, from blurred to clear.
Along with them came approaching footsteps, and the smell of blood.
The smell of blood was really strong, irresistibly stirring, "Appetite?"
Ryosuke abruptly opened his eyes.
In front of him stood a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old girl, lightly dressed, with sharp features, blonde hair and blue eyes. Grown up… no, foreigners mature early. Even now, she could already be considered a strikingly pretty girl... if one ignored her trembling body frozen in fear, and the short knife clenched tightly in her hand.
Nina choked out, "Don't, don't come any closer… monster…"
'Monster?'
Snap!
Ryosuke swung his arm, and before Nina could react, he snatched the short knife from her hand.
Looking at the silver-white gleaming blade, he saw a handsome, striking face reflected in it.
Perhaps due to system settings, the face hadn't changed, it was still Ryosuke's face.
The difference was that the Ryosuke reflected in the blade was deathly pale, with blood-red pupils. When he smiled slightly, two sharp, pointed canine teeth were especially eye-catching.
When he withdrew his smile, his upper lip even got "caught" on the right canine, forming an extremely terrifying, sinister grin in Nina's eyes.
"Ahhhhhhh!!!!" Nina screamed.
Ryosuke rubbed his temples. "Stop screaming. I won't hurt you, you..."
Nina continued screaming.
Perhaps influenced by this body, or perhaps truly irritated by the situation and the noise, Ryosuke, who was usually emotionally stable, rarely let out a low roar, "Shut up! You're too damn loud!"
"Yes."
Nina obediently shut her mouth.
Ryosuke forcefully rubbed his temples. His sharp fingertips pierced the skin and flesh, but he didn't notice.
Or rather, it wasn't that he didn't notice, just like how humans don't care about occasionally pulling out a few hairs while thinking, Ryosuke in his current state didn't need to care about such small injuries.
'Because I've become a vampire.' A truly world-collapsing opening.
At first, what Ryosuke thought was that he hoped he wouldn't become Lisa Lisa.
Before the trial began, he thought he hoped he wouldn't become an untrained civilian.
In reality, he indeed didn't become either of those two.
He was randomly assigned to the vampire camp.
'After becoming a vampire, I can't use Ripple, I fear sunlight, and I can't even cooperate with the protagonist group.'
'In the eyes of Kars and the other Pillar Men, so-called vampires are nothing more than lackeys and little bread rolls for energy replenishment.'
'And someone like me has to go kill Kars.'
Ryosuke walked to the window. He was in a two-story Western-style house.
He heard swallowing and tearing sounds downstairs. Presumably, Nina's parents had already been killed.
This wasn't an isolated case. Outside the window, the streets were filled with screams, flames, and slaughter.
This was a town being massacred by vampires.
Ryosuke frowned deeply.
Suddenly, he heard thump-thump-thump footsteps. A gaunt vampire with a bare upper body and blood all over his mouth rushed up and shouted at Ryosuke, "F*ck your mother, are you up here eating shit?"
"The boss told you to bring the woman down, not let you eat her yourself! Are you deaf?!"
Ryosuke slowly turned his head and calmly looked at him.
He didn't care about the filthy language. He asked a question that the White Snake Sage would find extremely familiar, ("Have you ever eaten a human?")
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